It is the new normal for your local grocery store to ask you, “Is plastic ok?” while bagging your items. Other stores, like the chain Aldi, will make you bag your own items by not providing bags for their customers at all. Reusable bags are a great way for the average person to make a small impact in our Earth’s environment.
According to the HuffPost, while plastic bags are recyclable, they still require special equipment for processing and cannot be mixed with other general recycling. This only causes plastic bags to build up, over time, in local landfills and some even end up in our oceans.
“By bringing your own bag to the grocery store you not only are not only helping the environment but you’re also helping save the many animals who are majorly impacted by the surplus of plastic bags on this Earth.” said Jonathan Jackson, of the Savannah Wildlife Center. “Some reusable bags are even made to be insulated so you can keep your frozen groceries cold on your drive home so why wouldn’t you use them?”
A 2018 Danish study from PHYS.org did research on how many times the average person should reuse all of the different types of bags that are available. Polypropylene bags should be used 37 times, paper bags should be used 43 times and cotton bags should be used 7,100 times.
These numbers jump in differences and show the possibilities that reusable bags have to offer. While polypropylene bags, the typical plastic shopping bag, can be reused after getting them for the first time, they definitely do not last the lengths of time that the cotton reusable bags can.
According to Conserve Energy Future, a plastic bag can take anywhere from 15 to 1,000 years to break down, depending on the environment. While reusable bags do cost money, they usually are only a few dollars, and the opportunity cost of saving thousands of plastic bags over the span of owning a reusable bag eventually weighs itself out.
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